Blended Writing Workshop Alternative PL

Goal

Teachers will be able to effectively incorporate and operate a blended writing workshop which will allow learners to become more comfortable and confident with writing and the writing process as well as actively use reflective ePortfolios into their classrooms to allow students to engage in authentic learning activities through writing and to showcase their work, no matter what discipline the teacher is teaching.

Who

In order to make my innovation plan a reality, it will be necessary for the educators involved to participate in an active alternative professional learning experience that will help all of us to start incorporating writing in a more effective way in our classrooms. My initial target audience will be the secondary ELA teachers in our building, since they will later become instructional coaches when we begin to help the rest of the staff with their writing instructional practices. We will meet together to figure out what areas we need to focus on during our writing instruction specific to each grade level. We will work together to plan new ways to engage our students in writing through a blended learning writing workshop using my BHAG and 3 Column Table.

Once our team of ELA teachers are ready, we will work in teams and focus on specific components of our plan based on each team member's knowledge and skill set. Each team will be responsible for presenting at least one alternative PL component through our collaborative workshops/hands-on activities/instructional videos that will be generated and used with the rest of our staff.

How

I will foster collaboration by creating a course specific to my PL plan and include this course in our Google Classroom LMS where we can all contribute materials. During our designated PL meeting time, we can share project ideas and strategies. Allowing teachers to collaborate together on their writing instruction on teams designated to their specific subject and grade level will allow them to foster the idea of self-directed learning. They will be in charge of planning how they will use the tools of a writing workshop within their specific course. They will create lessons, assignments/assessments, and peer review techniques and strategies that will work specifically for their needs.

Timeline

Year 1

Months 1& 2: Present the 5 Principles of Effective Professional Development to Language Arts teachers: Get Teacher Feedback

Months 3-6: Develop Sessions Based on my BHAG

Months 7-8:

• Set up PL in our LMS: Add teachers

• Create session folders and start adding materials

• Include teacher sign up sheet for workshops (Google Forms)

• Add reflective journal entries and portfolio project ideas/examples

Months 9-10: Teams make sure that all materials needed for school wide roll out are ready and loaded into LMS

Year 2

Months 1-2: Conduct PL sessions with individual departments

Months 3-6: Teachers work in grade level/course teams to create their own writing workshop plans with the help of instructional coaches. Teachers start incorporating their plans/assessments into their classes.

Months 7-10: Teachers reflect upon what is working well, what is not, and how to fix issues that are arising with the help of instructional coaches.

Cycle may continue into year 3

What

The following resources (may be more than what is currently listed here) will be needed in order to effectively produce and carry out this plan:

• Gulamhussaein’s 5 Principles of Effective Professional Development

• Fink’s Self-directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant learning

• My BHAG and 3 Column Table

• Laptops/Chromebooks

• Google Classroom

• Virtual Communities (created through LMS)

• Common Core and Pennsylvania State Standards

• Curriculum per department

It is important to note that the resources used within the individual writing workshops of the educators will be created and found by them since they will be creating their own learning environments for their students.

References:

Gulamhussein, A. (2013). Teaching the teachers: Effective professional development in an era of high stakes accountability. Center for Public Education.